Commentary: Obama wages war against Catholic Church

Dr. R. Claire Friend

Having fought to free ourselves from the tyranny of King George, we Americans find ourselves with the boot of yet another monarch planted firmly on our throat.

Mark Steyn compared President Obama to Henry VIII, the absolutist monarch who fought the Vatican. He ended Catholicism as the state religion of England and replaced it with the Anglican Church. He did as he wished so he could do as he wished. It is a stunning metaphor!

The Catholic Church is one of the world's oldest, most magnificent institutions. It provided the inspiration and the support for much of the greatest works of art, music and literature. The great masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and El Greco would not exist absent Papal commissions.

Charles Murray observed in his book "Human Accomplishment" that the greatness of Western European civilization itself is derived from its belief in church and God. Catholicism itself was the defender of civilization during the Crusades against the Muslims, who attempted to conquer Europe. The French Roman Catholic King Charlemagne was the great hero who saved Europe and conquered them instead.

America has fought many kinds of battles against internal and external foes. We have always been on the right side of the angels. Our most powerful and determinative battle, however, has not been a military conflict. It has been the secular and cultural war against the faith and morality of this country, and it now threatens to determine our very survival.

Obama's war against the Catholic Church is far greater than a simple demand that employers provide contraception and abortion in the guise of women's health services. His decree thwarts the legally guaranteed constitutional separation of church and state and attacks the respect for the sanctity of life, the most inviolate covenant of Catholicism.

The president has thrown down the gauntlet. This is a battle that threatens to undermine both America's Constitution and America herself. Our first president was a hero in the war fought to gain our independence. It was George Washington who helped give birth to his country. We now have a president who threatens to ring its death knell.

Who among us will lead the crusade against this new tyrant? Will there be another Washington or Charlemagne? Let us pray one arrives before November.